This is my personal blog. I was Branch Secretary of Lambeth UNISON from 1992 to 2017 and a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of UNISON, the public service union (www.unison.org.uk) from 2003 to 2017.
I am Chair of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party and of the Sussex Labour Representation Committee (LRC).
Neither the Labour Party nor UNISON is responsible for the contents of this personal blog. (Nor is my employer!)

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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Local Government Pay - now what?

If I were trying to settle this year's NJC pay dispute affecting hundreds of thousands of our members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland I think it is fair to say I wouldn't start from here.

Mixed feelings in the union were reflected in a narrow ballot result and patchy support for action. The subsequent decision to defer further action pending talks which have produced nothing more than some carefully worded joint statements which say nothing but do so elegantly has led to a loss of what little momentum we had.

The employers are not under sufficient pressure to make an improved offer at this point in time. We therefore have to identify steps which we can now take to put some pressure on our employers.

There are two seemingly impossible tasks which we have to grapple with. First we have to force the Government to provide additional funding to local authorities. Secondly we have to secure some of that additional funding for our members as an increased pay offer.

Since we have neither trade union unity nor any useful political influence with this disgraceful Government with which to secure these objectives these are incredibly difficult tasks.

However, with price rises skyrocketing it is equally impossible for our lower paid members to continue to make ends meet without a significantly improved pay offer.

After yesterday's TUC debate it is clear that there will be major public sector strike action, involving PCS, the NUT and possibly UCU members in Further Education and that this will take place from November onwards.

The General Council should set the date for the first of the TUC Days of Action to coincide with the commencement of this strike action - and we should aim for further local government strike action as part of this campaign.